Members of the public will be invited to taste portions of medieval food cooked on the day by food historian Caroline Yeldham, and learn about nutrition and diets then and now. The event is part of You are what you ate: food lessons from the past, a three-year research project funded by a Society Award from the Wellcome Trust. The aim is to explore how food affected our ancestors as well as how we can learn from the past to improve our health and engage with 21st century challenges such as obesity.

Through schools and youth activities, exhibitions, festival attendance, cooking demonstrations and bone workshops the project will explore the concept of a 'balanced diet' in history. It will encourage participants to engage with issues which affect their health in the 21st century, such as obesity, alcohol consumption, dental care, nutritional disorders, growth, famine and the impact of food processing and preservation
techniques on diet.

Dr Iona McCleery, a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Leeds and leader of the project said: "This project will completely transform public perceptions of the past. We'll be looking at things like how fruit and vegetables were at one time considered unhealthy and how we used to have a much spicier diet than we do now.

"Through food festival stalls and cooking demonstrations we will also reach people who don't usually go into museums to encourage them to think about how the past affects their own eating habits."

It is hoped that the event will serve to challenge a whole array of attitudes to both medieval and modern day lifestyle. Dr McCleery said: "Members of the public often believe that supermarket smoothies are healthy, that CSI-type forensic techniques can analyse skeletons instantly and that medieval people led short, unhappy lives with no connection to the modern world and no opportunities for entertainment or good health."

Dr McCleery is collaborating with Professor Janet Cade from the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, Professor Gary Williamson from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds, Dr Jo Buckberry at the University of Bradford, and Dr Vicky Shearman, Senior Cultural Officer at Wakefield Council.

The You are what you ate project is being undertaken in collaboration with archaeological scientists at the University of Bradford and Wakefield Council, and will present archaeological, visual and textual evidence from the medieval and early-modern periods to initiate debate and reflection on eating behaviours.

Starting in January, McCleery and her colleagues will begin visiting schools in the Wakefield region and hope to take their message to around 6,000 school children in total. A series of exhibition and stalls at street festivals are also planned.

Highlights include Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice - exploring the relationships between taste, health, appearance, social status, cultural identity and cost - and The Dark Side of Eating - focusing on nutritional disease, alcoholism and obesity as well as lifestyle choices, such as vegetarianism and fasting.

The event is being held at Pontefract Castle on 24 July.

Iona McCleery is available for interview. Contact University of Leeds, media relations, telephone: +44-113 343 8299 or pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk. 

Notes to editors

• The Wellcome Trust is a global charity dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/
  
• Iona McCleery has been lecturer in medieval history at the University of Leeds since 2007, prior to which she held a Wellcome Research Fellowship in the History of Medicine at the University of Durham. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/
  
• The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The university is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The university's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. /